University of Colorado Clamps Down on 420

420

(Reuters) – The University of Colorado sought on Friday (420) to clamp down on a huge annual marijuana fest, but after initially restricting access to the school, police later stood back and watched hundreds of people light up in a campus field.

Three protesters who crossed police lines at the Boulder campus were arrested for trespassing and about 11 others cited, but a confrontation thought possible between protesters and police never materialized.

“This is a multiyear effort but the consensus is right now that we took a major step in ending this event,” university spokesman Bronson Hilliard said, referring to the hundreds of participants this year versus 10,000 last year.

The event is held every year on April 20, on a date corresponding with a numerical 4/20 code widely known within the cannabis subculture as a symbol for all things marijuana.

University of Colorado administrators, saying they would no longer tolerate the annual gathering of pot smokers, sought to bar outside visitors to its flagship campus for the day…